The decision by SCOTUS to overturn most of SB-1070, Arizona’s controversial immigration law, is being lauded by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB): The U.S. bishops greeted with hope and caution the June 25 Supreme Court decision to strike down provisions of an Arizona immigration law that would have allowed warrantless arrests of people suspected of an offense that is deportable, that would have made it a crime to seek work in the state and that would have... Read more
A genuine point of inquiry from yours truly. Was the HHS mandate on contraception promulgated under the authority of provisions of the Affordable Care Act or did it have another basis? Is it possible that if the Affordable Care Act is overturned in its entirety on Thursday, the HHS mandate becomes moot? For those who know (lawyers, make yourselves useful), please enlighten me. Thanks! Read more
Individualism has apparently reached its apex: North Dakota resident Nadine Schweigert has, in an actual ceremony, married herself. And what makes this truly representative of a social phenomenon, on an international scale, is that this is not merely an isolated event but the latest of “a string of self-marriages” within the past decade. On one level this may indeed be, as one psychologist assesses, “a healthier and more productive way of marking the process of moving on than, say, throwing... Read more
In a recent piece motivated by Why Catholicism Matters, Bill Keller identifies agreement: “Much as I wish I could encourage the disconnected Catholics of open minds and open hearts to stay put and fight the good fight, this is a lost cause. [Author Bill] Donahue is right. Summon your fortitude and just go”. The departure of Anne Rice from Catholicism, perhaps, could serve as a model: “I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse... Read more
After Making Love We Hear Footsteps by Galway Kinnell For I can snore like a bullhorn or play loud music or sit up talking with any reasonably sober Irishman and Fergus will only sink deeper into his dreamless sleep, which goes by all in one flash, but let there be that heavy breathing or a stifled come-cry anywhere in the house and he will wrench himself awake and make for it on the run – as now, we lie together,... Read more
As a resident of Rhode Island’s Second Congressional District – “The Fightin’ Second!” – I’m facing a classic election year dilemma. I’m interested in the process our Catholic readers would use to evaluate my choices for US Representative. You can assume that I desire to make a choice that is most consonant with the moral and social teaching of the Church. You can also assume that the three candidates are decent people (which they are) and fully qualified for the... Read more
American bishops have been getting plenty of flak from their flock these days. Some of it is deserved. In particular, their much-touted “Fortnight for Freedom” campaign, which draws an audacious parallel between present-day American Catholics and first-century as well as sixteenth-century martyrs, appears to be mistaking a certain loss of privileged social standing (which the Church never should have claimed anyway) for outright persecution; besides which, its conflation of “American and Christian” values verges on the idolatry of civil religion (the culmination of... Read more
I was recently talking with a friend (a nondenominational Protestant) who is planning her wedding. When the conversation turned to her thoughts about having children, she identified herself, despite her very understandable worries about such a responsibility, as being “anti-birth-control”: she doesn’t want to put foreign chemicals into her body that might mess with her emotions and who knows what else, as we’ve both heard about from other friends. Whatever the reasoning, this self-identification would classify her as politically “conservative”... Read more
And she’s entertaining to boot. Enjoy! [ted id=1042] Read more
From the 2009 Faith and Culture Lecture at Villanova University. Read more
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